Greg bought a Logitech keyboard, hoping to use it on first-person shooters. He discovered that a common shift+W+space bar combination, which apparently is often used by gamers, doesn’t work on its lower-end products. [More]
video games
Microsoft Lost My Xbox, Won't Help Me Get It Back
By 11.17.10
When N’s Halo 3 Xbox 360 gave up the ghost, he sent it in for repair, but apparently Covenant forces have intervened because now the console is lost and not even the eagle-eyed scouts at Microsoft have been able to track it down. N has been hounding Microsoft since early October but he’s no closer to bringing his Xbox back from the void. [More]
PlayStation 3 Casts Vudu Spell
By 11.17.10
Straining to counter Microsoft’s inclusion of ESPN 3 on the Xbox 360, Sony is piling on video streaming apps at a heavy clip, adding pay-as-you-go streaming service Vudu to its stable of Hulu Plus and NHL GameCenter Live. [More]
Microsoft, Sony Pay GameStop To Upsell You Downloadable Add-On Codes
By 11.12.10
GameStop employees now have more than just pre-orders, strategy guides and loyalty cards to pressure unsuspecting customers into buying. The game dealer has moved into selling downloadable content cards, and revealed it’s getting a cut of the action, given it more incentive to convince players their games aren’t complete without an extra map pack. [More]
Kid Gets Kinect-Clocked In The Face
By 11.9.10
There’s a reason why the instructions on the Xbox Kinect, which allows you to play video games by sensing your gestures, tell you to clear the playing area and make sure you have plenty of elbow room, especially when you are playing with two people. The reason is this video. [More]
5 Ways The Kinect Can Improve
By 11.9.10
Kinect, Microsoft’s controller-free Xbox 360 motion and voice sensor, is entrancing gamers with its circa-2006 Wii-style magic spell, but not everyone is impressed. [More]
Hulu Plus To Bust Through PlayStation 3 Pay Wall
By 11.5.10
After restricting Hulu Plus — Hulu’s pay-to-play movie and TV streaming offering — to members of Sony’s paid PlayStation Plus service, Sony has decided to tear down that pay wall and let non-paying PlayStation Network members in on the action. [More]
Game-Hating Group Says 19 Percent Of Kids Can Buy M-Rated Titles
By 10.28.10
Striking a blow against the validity of the self-regulatory practices of the video game industry, the Parents Television Council conducted a survey that found 19 percent of kids could buy Mature-rated games at retailers. [More]
PC Game Box Says It Supports Controller, Only Supports Version Few Have
By 10.25.10
Kurt says he bought the PC game Dead Rising 2 hoping to use his wireless Xbox 360 controller to slay the undead. Because the box indicated it supported the controller, he thought he was good to go. But it turns out the game is only compatible with the much less popular wired version of the controller. [More]
Sony Sends Wrong Game Discs To Retailers, Asks To Get Them Back
By 10.25.10
Shaun White Skateboarding is coming out on Xbox 360 and Wii tomorrow, and was supposed to also hit the PS3 as well, but a last-minute snafu caused Sony to recall the discs. [More]
Best Buy Closes Early, Denies Me My Video Game At Midnight Opening
By 10.21.10
Question_Sleep lived up to his name by heading out to Best Buy for the midnight release of Fallout: New Vegas early Tuesday morning. Assured by the accompanying screenshot that the nearest location would stay open until 1 a.m., he made the 25-minute drive, only to discover the store had closed up early and sent him home. [More]
Walmart Sells Online Game That Doesn't Go Online
By 10.20.10
Jake saw the ill-fated online game APB — which publisher Electronic Arts shut down after just a few months — for sale at Walmart. It’s just waiting to spring its unplayable wonders upon some unsuspecting gamer. [More]
Microsoft Betting A Billion It Can Convince You To Try Kinect, Windows Phone 7
By 10.19.10
Microsoft is dipping into its vault of marketing cash and heading off on a nearly $1 billion shopping spree to promote its two upcoming technical epiphanies, the hands-free Xbox 360 Kinect controller and the iDroidBerry challenger Windows Phone 7. [More]
Redbox Will Rent Games For $2
By 10.13.10
In July, we reported on Redbox testing game rentals in select markets. And starting later this month, video game renters will be able to find their poison at even more Redbox kiosks. [More]
How SimCity Teaches Us The Pinnacle Of Urban Planning Is A Totalitarian Death State
By 10.12.10
Vincent Ocasla says that in fashioning the “Magnasanti” metropolis, he has “beaten” SimCity by creating the max stable population of six million. It consists of four grids of identical 12 x 12 grids with everyone’s workplace within walking distance. There are no roads, the city runs entirely on subways. There’s zero abandoned buildings zero congestion, and zero water pollution. It sounds like paradise, but it hides a dark core with a sinister message for would-be top-down urban planners. [More]
GameStop Can't Get Promised Preorders Bonuses To 'Enslaved' Players
By 10.11.10
GameStop dangled a comic book and t-shirt as incentives to get gamers to preorder Enslaved: Odyssey to the West during a promotional period, but when the game came out last week, the retailer couldn’t provide the goods. [More]
Unimpressed With Half-Baked Concession, Military Bases Still Won't Sell Medal Of Honor Game
By 10.6.10
Despite efforts by Electronic Arts to make Medal of Honor more palatable to military members and their families, bases still won’t sell the game when it releases next week. The game formerly allowed online gamers to play as Taliban members, but EA backed down to pressure and changed the squads’ names to “Opposing Force.” [More]
